Mexico has redoubled its efforts in the fight against money laundering, especially since the United States revealed links between Mexican banks and illicit activities related to drug trafficking.

Following the recent actions of the United States Department of the Treasury, which sanctioned three Mexican financial institutions (CIBanco, Intercam and Casa Vector) for facilitating transactions related to narcodollars, Mexico has implemented a series of measures to protect its financial system.

The measure by the US Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Administration (FinCEN) to freeze assets and restrict operations of these institutions reflects the priority of cutting off the financial circuits of drug trafficking.

Experts on the subject point out that the interrogations of major Mexican drug lords in the US show a change in the way illicit money is transported: no longer in suitcases, but through financial and business circuits and international havens in countries with still weak sovereignties, which has led to investigations focusing on the money flows and potential bribes to officials and politicians, a second line of interest for US authorities.

The work of the FIU

The arrival of Omar Reyes Colmenares as the new head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Ministry of Finance marks a strategic change in Mexico's policy to avoid international sanctions and strengthen cooperation with the United States in the pursuit of organized crime money.

One of the priorities is focused on money laundering, so Reyes' management at the FIU takes on crucial relevance.

Furthermore, his arrival seeks to strengthen collaboration with the United States and improve Mexico's ability to detect and prosecute suspicious transactions, so the relationship with FinCEN will be critical, since coordination in the identification and freezing of accounts linked to money laundering is key to dismantling drug trafficking financial networks.

The UIF has its sights set on influencers, due to the suspicion that they launder money for one of the two sides maintaining the internal war in Sinaloa: Los Chapitos and La Mayiza.

According to Mexican media such as the weekly Proceso, the UIF has a list prepared that includes 64 influencers, residents of Sinaloa, whose profiles or channels are being investigated for receiving illicit money injected by organized crime so that YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and other platforms pay them large amounts of money for advertising sales. These profits would allow criminal groups to acquire weapons, ammunition, vehicles and bribe authorities.

"Organized crime operators make a content creator millionaire and famous and, in return, they return a high percentage of the payment for their interactions and marketing contracts," notes the newspaper Milenio.

A man with experience

Omar Reyes replaces Pablo Gomez Alvarez and has a technical profile, highly experienced in intelligence and security, and has held numerous positions before taking on the fight against money laundering.

According to El País, he was director of the central office of Interpol in Mexico and in 2020 he worked in the intelligence area of ??the Banking and Industrial Police of the City from Mexico, when he became part of Omar Garcia Harfuch's team.

In Mexico, the departure of Pablo Gómez from the UIF and the arrival of Omar Reyes represent a change in institutional strategy. Reyes, with experience in intelligence and security, faces the challenge of strengthening the country's capacity to identify unusual transactions, prosecute cases, and comply with the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which evaluates the fight against money laundering in Mexico.

The new official will also face the task of improving communication with the United States, which in the past has shown deficiencies in the exchange of information and coordination with Mexican institutions.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said: "He is a very intelligent man... He is an intelligence specialist and has a very good profile."

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